How Green Is Your Electric Car?

The biggest selling point of the electric car has long been the fact that it’s emissions-free. Turns out that’s not exactly true.

Trading in your gasoline-guzzling car for an electric vehicle is a lot like shifting the emissions from an exhaust pipe to a power plant. EVs run off electricity, and that electricity—unless you’re lucky enough to live in a place like Norway—is coming from a mix of emissions-intensive fossil fuels, nuclear, and, to a lesser extent, renewable energy.

So exactly how green your EV is depends on where you’re plugging it in. An electric car in Norway is probably ...